


Through the Roof

by writingonpostcards



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Getting Together, M/M, Sharing Body Heat, Sharing Clothes, Sharing a Bed, the triple threat...
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-06
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-10-15 09:05:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10553704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingonpostcards/pseuds/writingonpostcards
Summary: “You can take the floor in our room,” Shitty offers. “We’ll put some pillows down for you.”“No.” Everyone turns to looks at Jack, surprised. “Stay with me.”A Zimbits iteration of the tried and true “bed sharing + clothes sharing + it’s really cold” triple trope





	

Bitty wasn’t afraid of storms generally speaking, but this one was downright nasty. The team had walked past upended trees—big ones with years of life in them—on the way back from the store. Powerlines were downed. The heating in the house the hockey team had rented for what was meant to be a nice weekend getaway is non-existent because there’s no power.

Bitty lies in the single bed in the smallest room in the house in the pitch darkness and tries not to jump every time a tree bangs into the glass of his window. It’s all so loud.

So, no, Bitty isn’t scared of storms in general, but he’s scared of _this_ storm. For good reason, it turns out, because not a minute after Bitty wishes he’d bailed out of the trip to stay on campus instead, a tree crashes through his roof.

Not the window he’d feared it coming through. The actual roof.

Bitty screams bloody murder.

The tree limb comes through almost all the way to the floor, and water starts dripping down it, heading toward the carpet. Thankfully, it didn’t crash land onto Bitty’s bed, where it would have skewered Bitty. Bitty’s body is thrumming with adrenaline; half terror, half relief.

The door to his room crashes open and Lardo and Shitty practically fall through.

“Fuck,” Lardo says, shining one of the torches they’d bought earlier at the tree.

“Goddamn,” Shitty states. “You alright, brah?”

Bitty tries to speak but it doesn’t quite work. He realises it’s because his body is locked up, he can’t even move his fingers apart. That’s going to be a problem.

“What’s going on?” Jack comes in behind Lardo and Shitty. A knight in rumpled sleep clothes. He surveys the scene, adding his own torch light to Lardo’s. He manages to look calm, and it helps Bitty to see it.

“You shouldn’t stay in here,” Jack deduces, looking over to Bitty, who is slowly encouraging his limbs into movement.

“No shit,” Lardo adds.

“You can take the floor in our room,” Shitty offers. “We’ll put some pillows down for you.”

“No.” Everyone turns to looks at Jack, surprised. “Stay with me.”

“With you?” Bitty is so shocked he forgets that he’s not supposed to be able to talk or move right now.

“Yes. The couch is taken, and everyone else is sharing already. It’s a king double.”

Bitty can’t deny the logic of Jack’s statement.

“Alright.” Bitty gets himself out of bed, grabbing Senor Bun to take with him.

He follows Jack into his room at the other end of the hall.

It’s a king bed, yes, but Jack is big.

Bitty lets Jack get in first and then takes the other side, holding Senor Bun tight, and rolling onto his side away from Jack. He closes his eyes but they just pop back open. He’s too keyed up from what happened, shivering with cold and adrenaline, dancing around the ‘what if’s’ of the tree coming in a few feet over.

He watches the lightning crack through the sky, and says thankful prayers that he’s alive, even if he is fucking freezing in a thin sleeping shirt and shorts not long enough now that the heating is out. Jack seems to have been sleeping with at least three less blankets than Bitty.

“Bittle.”

Bitty startles and turns over. He thought Jack was asleep. “Yeah, Jack?”

“Are you alright?” Jack’s frowning.

Bitty nods. “F-f-fine.” Bitty’s teeth chatter.

Jack’s pulling up an extra blanket before he’s finished speaking.

“I forgot your body can’t handle the cold,” Jack chirps him.

“Hey! I’m not that bad.”

Jack reaches out to touch Bitty’s face. Bitty’s too frozen to move away from it. He probably wouldn’t want to anyway.

“Shit. You’re freezing,” Jack frowns, moving his hand up to cover Bitty’s forehead.

“I’m fine,” Bitty tries to argue, but he can’t hide the violent shiver that racks his body. Talking about it is only making him notice more how cold his limbs seem to be. Even Senor Bun feels damp with it.

Jack raises an eyebrow at him.

“Fine. I’m cold.”

Jack throws the blankets off them.

“What are you doing?” Bitty demands, body locking up as cold air rushes over him.

Jack grabs the torch and turns it on, shining it over Bitty’s body. He’d feel self-conscious, except that he’s too cold to feel anything apart from that.

“That’s what you’re wearing? No wonder you’re cold.”

“I always wear this to bed.”

“I know,” Jack says under his breath with some frustration.

“I’ll have you know that I was promised heating, mister. Don’t chirp me.”

“I’m not chirping, I’m concerned.”

“Oh. Well, alright.”

Jack gets out of the bed and Bitty watches him rifling through the cupboard, holding the torch in his mouth. He comes back to the bed with a pair of track pants and a hoodie.

“Here.” Jack holds them out to Bitty.

Bitty looks at the clothes and knows that they’re going to be so warm when he puts them on, and he’ll feel so much better when he does.

“I… can’t move.”

Jack frowns. “Just put them on. You’ll be warmer.”

“I _know_ that.” Bitty’s muscles are so stiff and tense from holding his limbs tight together. “I _can’t_.”

Jack drops the torch on the bed, and the clothes next to them.

“I don’t know—What am I—You’re really that cold you can’t move?”

Bitty nods his head once.

Jack stops, presses his hands to his eyes then drops them. “I’ll warm you up first, then you can put the clothes on.”

“Warm me up?”

Jack gets back into bed and then scoots closer to Bitty. He raises his eyebrows in a question and it hits Bitty then, the method Jack is suggesting.

Bitty swallows, then nods.

Jack moves in and presses his body along Bitty’s, wrapping his arms around him and bringing him in so his head is pressed against Jack’s neck. Bitty must be colder than he thought, because Jack’s skin feels blazing. Immediately, he can feel warmth soaking into him. He sighs out and his muscles drop a bit of tension, and that’s almost as much of a relief as Jack’s body heat.

Jack holds himself very still, maybe feeling awkward about doing this, even though Bitty knows (has seen, in fact, and maybe felt a little jealous of) Jack doing similar with Shitty.

Bitty closes his eyes and sighs out again. He’s starting to feel better.

“I’m just going to pull the blankets up,” Jack lets him know.

Bitty falls asleep easily after he does.

Bitty wakes in the morning feeling warm, warm, warm. He smiles and snuggles into the warmth. Arms tighten around him and for a few moments it doesn’t feel strange.

He opens his eyes and sees Jack’s face, lax with sleep right in front of his. Jack breathes out and Bitty feels it on his face.

Bitty goes to push himself back a bit, give himself some space, but Jack’s arms are surprisingly strong around his back. What’s more, he realises Jack has one of Bitty’s legs trapped between his own. No wonder Bitty is so warm.

Bitty smiles and presses his face into Senor Bun. He’s spent a night with Jack.

Bitty realises he’s wearing Jack’s hoodie, the one Jack had gotten out last night for him. Bitty thinks back but can’t remember putting it on. If he didn’t, then Jack did it for him. And then apparently went right back to holding Bitty.

Bitty closes his eyes and tries to fall back to sleep, but he can’t now because he’s too busy thinking about what it means—what he hopes it means—that Jack did that.

Jack wakes eventually, and Bitty begins pre-empting the moment that this becomes awkward.

“Bits.” Jack’s voice is lower in the morning. It sounds nice. “Sleep well?”

Bitty nods. “Very. Thank you.”

“It was no problem.”

Jack moves his arms from around Bitty and stretches. Bitty holds his breath, waiting for Jack to say something about how close they woke up, but he doesn’t.

Jack gets out of bed and goes over to the wardrobe. Bitty sits up, and watches him go through his bag. His hair is more ruffled than normal, and he’s got marks from the sheets on his arms.

“What are you looking for?” Bitty gets out of bed. He’s not sure what help he can be, but he owes it to offer at least, after last night.

“My hoodie,” Jack mutters, pulling clothes out of his bag.

Bitty laughs, and Jack turns to look at him.

“This hoodie?” Bitty holds him arms out to the side.

Jack blinks and looks him over. A blush paints his cheeks.

“You, ah… Yes. That one.” Jack says, clearing his throat. “I forgot I lent it to you.”

“‘S’alright. You were probably half asleep. And it was dark.”

Jack nods slowly.

“Did you want it back?” Bitty asks, already reaching for the hem, uncertain at Jack’s silence.

“No, no,” Jack holds up a hand. “You keep it. It looks good on you.”

Bitty makes a surprised noise. Jack thinks he looks good in his hoodie? He feels himself heating, or maybe he’s just still warm from sharing Jack’s bed.

“Sorry, I, uh.” Jack rubs a hand over his chest. “I maybe am still a little asleep?”

“It’s alright, Jack. Was only a compliment.”

“Right,” Jack says, grateful.

Bitty smiles at Jack.

“I did mean it, though,” Jack adds somewhat awkwardly.

“Thank you.”

“You—That colour suits you.”

“I—Thank you.”

“Not that other colours don’t.”

Jack is starting to scare Bittle a little. He’s acting very nervous. It must be the reaction Bitty was expecting earlier, the reaction to Jack waking up with Bitty in his arms.

“Well, I should go start breakfast for everyone,” Bitty says to let Jack have his space.

Bitty leaves Jack’s room, and hears a string of French words behind him as he does. He shrugs and goes down to the kitchen, then he remembers the power is out. So much for making breakfast.

He returns upstairs, not sure where he’s headed, seeing as his room is a hazard site right now. He follows his feet to Jack’s room, and pushes the door open without knocking, thinking he’ll at least move Senor Bun out of Jack’s way.

Jack leaps up from where he’s been sitting on the bed.

“Bits. I thought you were making breakfast.”

“No power,” Bitty explains.

Jack nods, a little frantically.

“Are you alright?” Bitty can’t help to ask.

“Me?”

“You’re a bit not your usual self this morning.”

“Oh, right. No. Yes. I’m fine.”

The babbling is not helping Jack’s cause.

“Okay,” Bitty accepts reluctantly. “Then I guess, I mean,” Bitty looks down. “I wanted to ask, are _we_ alright?”

There is silence, and Bitty stays staring at the ground until Jack speaks.

“Why wouldn’t we be?”

Bitty looks up to see Jack’s brow furrowed with honest confusion.

“Just, after last night. I thought maybe… You’ve been acting a bit strange this morning, is all.”

Jack immediately apologises.

“You don’t have to,” Bitty tells him. 

“No. I do. I have been acting strange.”

Bitty nods, feeling less awkward at having said so now that he knows Jack has been thinking the same.

“We’re alright, though,” Jack assures him. “I was just…”

Jack trails off, shuffling his feet. He stays quiet for a long while.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” Bitty says at last, stinging a little that Jack hasn’t, but understanding that Jack isn’t as open as he is.

“I want… I _should_.”

Bitty waits as Jack taps his fingers against his leg.

“It was selfish of me to share the bed with you last night.” Jack finally admits like it’s some big secret.

“Selfish?” Bitty repeats. “Not at all.”

Jack shakes his head then sighs out and looks at Bitty.

“It was. I wanted… Because I wanted you.”

_Oh_ , Bitty thinks. That’s where all the strangeness is coming from.

“Wanted me?”

Jack nods, not breaking eye-contact. “It was selfish because I like you, and sharing my bed with you, and my clothes… that was all selfish.”

“Oh, Jack,” Bitty whispers, flooding with feeling, a hand coming up to press over his racing heart.

Jack shrugs and finally looks away, moving to sit on the bed, hands clasped between his legs.

“Very selfish, eh.”

Bitty supposes Jack might be right, in a way. Fabricating, rather than finding excuses to spend time with someone you like does seem a little underhanded. Bitty doesn’t mind at all though, not one bit. Especially not if it’s lead them to having this conversation, which Bitty thought he’d never even get to even hint at with Jack.

“No,” Bitty whispers, then repeats it again so it comes out firmer. “No. I would have done the same.”

Jack laughs without humour. “But out of kindness, not some… some… I can’t think what the word is. For personal gain only.”

“Non-altruistically. But Jack,” Bitty takes a step in and the movement brings Jack’s eyes back to his. “It wouldn’t have been… If I offered, it would have been for the same reasons.”

Jack’s eyes widen the tiniest bit. “You…”

Bitty nods. “Yeah, yes. It would’ve been selfish of me too. Because I want to share those things with you as well. Bed, clothes… body.”

Bitty flushes on the last word, and Jack’s eyes drop down to his lips before darting away.

“And if we both want it, if we’re both interested,” Bitty continues, hands moving in front of him, “then that’s not selfish, it’s… it’s…”

Bitty bites his lip. “Now _I_ can’t think of the word,” he jokes, giving up.

“Mutually beneficial?” Jack suggests.

“Maybe.”

Jack laughs and stands up, taking a single step toward Bitty. “You know, that sounds a little bit like friends with benefits territory.”

“Jack,” Bitty chastises. “That is not what I want. That’s not what you want either.” Bitty pushes through the claim confidently, feeling almost entirely certain that those little clues from last night—Jack offering his bed, sharing his clothes, the concern and comfort—mean Jack is interested in more.

“You’re right. I wouldn’t want that for us.”

Bitty, emboldened by being right, steps in to Jack, right up to him, close so he has to crane his neck to look into Jack’s eyes.

“What do you want for us?”

Jack takes Bitty’s question, and considers it in silence. Bitty’s not worried, because while he’s thinking, he brings his hand up to Bitty’s neck and rests it there. His thumb reaches up across Bitty’s cheek, and moves back and forth along Bitty’s skin.

“Coffee dates at Annie’s,” Jack lists first, and Bitty is tempted to roll his eyes, because they practically do that already. It would be miles different though, Bitty knows, to do it with the knowledge it’s a date.

“Baking with you,” Jack continues. “Texting. Holding your hand. Getting fined by the team when you call me names. Sleeping next you again. Sleeping with you. “

Bitty averts his eyes at that last one, and Jack chuckles.

“We’ll build up to that, eh.”

Bitty nods because his throat feels thick.

He and Jack stand like that until there’s obvious movement from down the hall—Ransom and Holster waking up and discovering the tree through Bitty’s roof.

Jack sighs out.

“We should probably go fill them in before they do something ridiculous.”

“Okay.”

Jack drops his hand from Bitty’s cheek, then goes to the doorway. Bitty reaches out to stop him, managing to grab him by the back of his shirt.

“Wait, Jack, before we do that, could you just—I want to—” Bitty gives up on words.

He tugs gently until Jack turns around, then closes the distance between them, stares right into Jack’s eyes, lays his hands on Jack’s cheeks, and goes up on his tiptoes to kiss him.

It’s nice. Jack makes a little noise, and then his hands come around Bitty’s back. That’s nice too. They’re so warm, and they cover so much of his back.

Bitty sighs out, content, and pulls back.

Jack smiles down at him, a little sleepily still. He takes a hand off Bitty’s back to run a finger over the hand still on his cheek. Traces it all the way back to Bitty’s shoulder, then down his side to his hip and around to his back again.

“You should ask me out properly later,” Bitty requests, feeling warm inside, smiling at Jack because he can’t not.

“I’m planning on it.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Read in its original home [on tumblr](http://17piesinseptember.tumblr.com/post/158757771868/a-zimbits-iteration-of-the-tried-and-true-bed)


End file.
